The Hindu Business Line : The effort shows

Seven-year-old Pinky wants to become a teacher. She definitely does not want to continue doing what her parents do, iron clothes for a living. Pinky is hopeful that school education can show her a way out. Not just Pinky, Gudiya, Roma, Manoj Kumari, Robina and Damodar all attend classes, courtesy Prayas, an NGO providing free education to underprivileged children.

The Faridabad-based organisation is the brainchild of M.L. Gupta, a retired banker who was distressed to watch children picking garbage. "I was posted in Meerut when, during my morning walk one day, I saw some boys picking up rags from a garbage dump. I asked them why they didn't go to school. With tears in their eyes two boys said school was a dream that would always remain unfulfilled for them."

After retirement in 1999, Gupta settled down in Faridabad and started modestly with 15 children drawn from the nearby slums. Today this initiative has grown into nine centres with 1,700 children. In fact, Gupta says, "Now we have a problem of plenty because the promise of free education lures even the economically better-off."

There are approximately 35 children to a class. The project first began at the DC Model School, and soon other schools too came forward to offer their premises in the afternoons. From 2.30 to 6 p.m., Prayas conducts classes that are attended by the children of labourers, sweepers, rickshaw-pullers and gardeners among others. The children troop in wearing their neat uniforms.

Pinky's face lights up as she sings `Twinkle Twinkle Little Star'. The school opens to her a world that is limitless. Back home, she shares the limited space with four siblings, her parents and a maternal uncle. The baby of the family is adept at making chapattis. "Mummy puts the stove on the floor and I roll out chapattis like this and then phulao (roast) them on the tawa," she demonstrates with her little hands.

Thirteen-year-old Gudiya loves watching movies — Swades, Kal Ho Na Ho, Koi Mil Gaya among others — with the `aunty' for whom her mother works as a maid. Her classmate Manoj Kumari's father is a labourer, so the world of books at school is a luxury for her. She wants to become a teacher but Gudiya wants nothing less than a doctor's job so that she may treat patients for free. But how will she run her home, we ask. A hearty laugh later she changes tack, "I will charge only the rich who come for operations."

Damodar in class IV is his parents' blue-eyed boy because all his four siblings are girls. This puts on his thin shoulders the onus of earning for the family. In the morning he does puja at home, because this is what the school has taught him, and goes to work. Washing cars fetches him around Rs 600 a month and he is back in time to attend school in the afternoon.

This little boy who loves action movies — Sholay, Hamla and Mujhse Shaadi Karogi, the last with his favourite actor Akshay Kumar — wants to become a police inspector. His parents, who iron clothes for a living, would be proud of him, he says.

Many of these parents have never been educated themselves. Najju, a small-time gas welder, has all four of his children studying in the school, thanks to the free education. Otherwise he would have been forced to choose one child, and that would predictably have been his only son, for education. Not to have to make this choice makes him very happy.

For Gianwati, education for daughter Vandana in class IV and son Nakul in Nursery means the world. That the children get free uniform, stationery and books saves her the headache of balancing the family budget. Her hope for the future? "They will have a better tomorrow than the present."

But will the future be as rosy when the children grow up to join the queue of job seekers? Gupta says the school imparts vocational training on weekends. Coaching in football, cricket and badminton, training in candle making and electrical repairs are provided to make the children self-reliant.

TV repair, dhurri weaving, cycle repair and soap making are planned at the secondary school level. The Prayas Social Welfare Society also runs seven free vocational training centres for women imparting tailoring, embroidery and knitting skills, says Gupta.

A free adult education programme for girls and women was initiated a year ago. The society also runs a free dispensary.

Born in 1932 during the heydays of the freedom struggle, Gupta was inspired by Gandhian values and took to heart the preaching of the Father of the Nation: "Education to a child is a great service to the nation and society as a whole."

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